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Steamboat Springs — Brad Meeks is settling in to his new home.

Steamboat Springs’ new superintendent attends Sailors’ basketball, hockey, football and volleyball games. For Christmas, he received from his eldest son a fly-fishing rod that he expects to break in somewhere in the Yampa Valley.

He also felt more at home after he dusted off and hung in his corner office an old picture of the 28 students who made up Steamboat Springs High School’s Class of 1938. Included in the frame is a 74-year-old black and white photo of a pair of old Ford automobiles parked in front of what is now the George P. Sauer Human Services Center.

“This is just a reminder of how far we’ve come as a district and of the many people who set the stage before us,” Meeks said.

While Meeks — who moved to Steamboat in July from Farmington, Minn. — is learning more about the history of his school district, he’s also starting to plan for his future tenure here.

“I’m satisfied by what I’ve done here so far,” he said. “I’m satisfied because everything we’ve been able to accomplish (this school year) has come from a team approach, and that’s a process I believe in.”

Meeks was given a unanimous vote of confidence by his School Board on Monday night when they agreed to negotiate a likely two-year contract extension for him. The contract’s salary is pending, and board President Brian Kelly said he is waiting to receive and compare administrator salary data from similar school districts in Aspen, Telluride and Eagle County to be used during the negotiations.

Looking ahead

“It’s like any job I’ve had,” Meeks said as he started to describe his first six months in Steamboat. “The first year, you’re trying to learn and listen more and talk less. You have to understand the history of

why the things are the way they are.”

Meeks was busy on a Wednesday that he filled with meetings exploring ways to cut energy costs in the district, discussing the $2.1 million to $2.6 million in grant applications the district will submit to the Steamboat Springs Education Fund Board by Feb. 1 and the reviewing the upcoming performance-based budget cycle for next school year.

The superintendent also waited to learn the fate of his district’s bid to become the food service provider for Colorado Mountain College’s Alpine Campus, a bid that was narrowly endorsed Monday by the School Board.

Budgeting ideas

Meeks said that based on news from Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office and the state Legislature, the district soon will prepare drafts of its budget that are 96 and 98 percent of this year’s budget as well as a status quo draft and another one that includes an enhancement package.

Having spent half a year as Steamboat’s top educator, Meeks said he plans to focus on that budget and the implementation of what is likely his most significant achievement during his tenure: the return to the district of a curriculum director.

Specifically, Meeks said the district is looking at how to make the 20 percent of its budget that isn’t dedicated to payroll more efficient.

“If we cannot control that 20 percent, it will control us and affect our classrooms,” he said.

Citing a health insurance premium increase of 23 percent this school year for district employees, Meeks said he is exploring the possibility of adding a 300-square-foot medical clinic to the school district that he said could bring health care costs down for teachers and their dependents as early as the fall.

He said the clinic would allow teachers to visit a physician in the district for episodic illnesses and checkups as part of their benefits package and would be modeled after an in-district health care facility he helped launch last year as superintendent of the 6,400-student Farmington Area Public School District in Minnesota.

In a story that analyzed that clinic, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported in October that the facility allows district employees and their dependents to get “flu shots, physical exams, and help (manage) chronic conditions such as diabetes and high cholesterol.”

The Star Tribune also reported the clinic “stocks 30 generic medications, giving patients an inexpensive way to fill prescriptions.”

“I’m looking at this as a possible way to control our (health care) costs because nobody can keep enduring double-digit premium increases,” Meeks said, adding that costs likely would be saved because employees would not have to file an insurance claim after they visit the clinic. He said teachers also could see a physician without taking a full day off work.

Managing expectations

With new initiatives in flux, Meeks said he wants to make tweaks to the teaching systems already in place within the district, not overhaul them.

“I’m always aware you don’t want to go too fast and you don’t want to overwhelm,” he said. “I think the pacing so far has been good.”

He mentioned staff development and student testing data analysis as items he would like to bolster, and he added he was fortunate to walk into a school district as distinguished as Steamboat.

“There’s a high level of expectation from the community for our graduates,” he said. “Our students get accepted in colleges and universities all across the country. They can go anywhere, and that’s a great reflection of the system we have here.”

To reach Scott Franz, call 970-871-4210 or email scottfranz@SteamboatToday.com